Path of Exile 2 Leaves Early Access on December 11 With New Duelist Class and Swords

Path of Exile 2 will officially leave early access on December 11, 2026, when its free to play 1.0 version launches for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and PC.

The announcement came alongside a new look at the Duelist, a melee focused class built around one handed and two handed swords, parries, combat stances and a wide range of modified attacks. The update also finally adds the Sword weapon type, which has been missing since Path of Exile 2 entered early access in December 2024.

Duelist focuses on fast melee attacks and parries

The Duelist is designed around close range combat, using swords to cut through groups while also giving you defensive tools for reacting to enemy attacks.

Basic attacks can transition into different combat stances that modify their behavior, adding area damage or status effects such as Bleed.

The class can also parry incoming attacks, helping create openings against stronger enemies.

Its skill set goes well beyond straightforward sword swings. The gameplay overview showed abilities that create spinning sand discs, drills for focused single target damage, blood waves, dash attacks and swords that erupt from the ground before exploding.

Electricity can also be added to attacks, while one of the more dramatic abilities transforms a two handed sword into a massive magical greatsword capable of striking across a large area.

These tools can be combined into builds that fill rooms with overlapping effects, allowing the Duelist to handle large enemy groups as well as bosses.

Two Ascendancy subclasses are planned

The base Duelist will eventually branch into two Ascendancy subclasses.

Grinding Gear Games has not yet provided full details on either one. Those subclasses are scheduled to be revealed during ExileCon on November 7, 2026.

The supplied preview suggests one may have a Paladin style theme, but that detail has not been officially confirmed in the article.

The important point is that the abilities shown so far are only part of the class's basic toolkit. Endgame builds will add gear, passive interactions and Ascendancy mechanics on top of those foundations.

Forbidden Rites arrives before the 1.0 launch

Players will not need to wait until December for new content.

A new Forbidden Rites Event League begins on September 4, 2026. It will introduce eight challenges, exclusive rewards, a major rework of the Trial of Chaos and broader changes to endgame systems.

The league is intended to bridge the remaining gap between the current early access version and the full 1.0 launch.

Path of Exile 2 entered early access on December 4, 2024, so the move to 1.0 will come almost exactly two years later.

The December launch should be one of the game's most important milestones yet. Alongside the shift to a full free to play release, the addition of the Duelist and swords fills a major gap in the weapon lineup and gives melee focused players a new class built specifically around fast attacks, stance changes and reactive defense.